Picking Up The Pieces
by Lee Davies
Summary: Modern S&S. Elizabeth and Mara Dunhurst try to get through their last years of college with their hearts intact.
1. In the beginning

_This will be a modern retelling of S&S and I have changed the names of the characters but given them the same initials. So Elizabeth Dunhurst is Elinor Dashwood, Evan Fuller is Edward Ferrars, Mara Dunhurst is Marianne Dashwood and Colin Branson is Christopher Brandon. Now that that's out of the way, onto the story!_

Elizabeth Dunhurst (_never_ Liz or Lizzy, thank your very much) sat at the kitchen table, her head in her hands. She'd been going over the family finances until she could hardly see anything and it looked rather dire. She was supposed to be finishing her last year of grad school and her younger sister Mara was going to be a senior at Western Washington University. Emphasis on the "was" part if Elizabeth couldn't find a way to get some more money.

They had two options, as Elizabeth saw it: either they had to move to a smaller house, or else she would have to forgo grad school and get a job. If their father hadn't died before he'd had a chance to change his will, things would have been different. But it did no go to cry about it. Once her mother got home from trying to take the youngest Dunhurst daughter clothes shopping (which was a constant battle), Elizabeth would have to talk to her mother. And as much as she loved her parent, Elizabeth couldn't help but become exhausted from the mere thought of trying to tackle her mother long enough to have a real conversation.

The front door of their house banged open and Marcy came storming in, their mother hard on her heels. "The skirt looked so cute on you, Marcy!"

" I HATE skirts!" the teenager yelled as she stormed up the stairs and slammed her door.

"I take it the shopping didn't go well..." Elizabeth commented dryly as she got up from the table.

Her mother looked flustered. "Perhaps it could have gone better..."

Elizabeth shook her head. Marcy was an _utter_ tomboy and her mother and Mara tried to get her to be more girly, but Marcy fought them with a spirit Elizabeth could only admire. As the eldest, she was the one who had held the family together through the trying time after their father passes. Their half brother Jake and his wife had gotten all of their father's money from the will and wouldn't even help with with any sorts of expenses. They'd had to yank Marcy out of the private school she'd been going to and she was now at Sehome High School.

Thinking about this reminded her of what she had to tell her mother and she sighed. "Mom...we need to talk about money."

Something in her tone told her mother she was serious and the older woman sat down at the table. "We're going to have to move, aren't we..." she sighed.

"It's either that, or I give up finishing my degree and get a job, using the money I saved to send Mara for her last year instead." Elizabeth said, also taking a seat at the table.

Predictably, her mother shook her head immediately. "No, Elizabeth. We'll move so that both of you can finish. Maybe we can find something in between the college and the high school so that we could get rid of one of the cars. It would bring the insurance down and maybe buy some of Mara's books."

Elizabeth hadn't thought of selling one of their three cars, but it made sense, especially with her and Mara both going to Western. "That's a good idea, Mom. Mara and I can carpool and it'll be three years before Marcy can even drive, so that leaves a car for you and a car for us. Maybe I can swing by the dealership on Saturday and see what I can get for the Subaru."

Her mother nodded. "We can also start looking at possible houses. The mortgages are paid up through next month so we have a few weeks."

"All we have to do now is tell Mara when she gets home." Elizabeth sighed. Her sister had been dating a young man named Josh Wilson for awhile and it seemed like it might be getting serious. While she certainly liked Josh and he was funny and charming...Elizabeth just didn't trust him somehow. But her mother and sister wouldn't hear any talk against him, so she'd learned to keep quiet on the subject of Josh.

"She should be home soon. I think she and Josh were going for a hike." her mother said fondly.

Josh and Mara had met when Mara had taken Marcy for a hike by Whatcom Falls and twisted her ankle. Josh had come upon them and insisted on driving them home himself. He'd come to check on her the next day and after that, they'd been joined at the hip. "Hopefully no twisted ankles this time." Elizabeth joked and she was glad to see a small smile on her mother's face.

They heard a car door close and guessed that Mara must be back from the hike. "They weren't gone long." Mrs. Dunhurst commented, looking at the clock in consternation.

Mara came flying into the room, tears already dripping down her face. Elizabeth got to her feet immediately. This wasn't one of Mara's dramatic crying spells. Her face was pale and crumpled like someone had taken a hammer to her insides.

"Mara? What happened?" she asked urgently, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"J-Josh and I...we're over!" she sobbed, pulling away and running upstairs.

Elizabeth and her mother exchanged shocked looks. Mara and Josh were over? What had happened? Was there a fight? A misunderstanding? It would do no good to try and talk to Mara right now, when she was upset. She'd give it a few hours and then try. In the meantime, she had to figure out what in the _hell_ she was going to cook for dinner with a fuming Marcy and heartbroken Mara. This just wasn't her freaking day.


	2. Jake Arrives

_I appreciate the couple of reviews that I got! It was a nice surprise and here's the next installment.  
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><p>Dinner had been a tense and rather unpleasant affair that night. Mara was moping and one couldn't get more than a few words out of her at a time while Marcy was still fuming over having been tricked into going to the mall with her mother and forced to try on those most hated of garments; dresses and skirts. Elizabeth didn't see why her mother insisted on pushing these feminine frills on Marcy. Her youngest sister was into hockey and basketball but try telling that to her girly mother.<p>

Once the dishes had been washed and put away, Mara immediately melted upstairs and Elizabeth wanted to groan when she heard the sounds of Adele coming from her sister's room. She had nothing against the singer and even liked most of her songs but Mara had a tendancy to play her cd to death.

Shaking her head, she pulled out the evening newspaper and started looking at possible places they could move to. A few looked like possibilities and she circled them so they could take a look on Saturday. Some would have been perfect, but were definitely out of their price range. One particular house caught her eye. It was small, but in obviously good repair and the price was right. Provided the rooms looked as good as the outside of the house, they could make it into a snug little home.

She circled that one before looking through the mail and stopping as her hands fell on a letter addressed to her in a neat hand that she knew all too well. It was from Evan.

Evan Fuller was the brother of her awful sister in law, Frances. How those two came from the same family Elizabeth would never know but Evan was the complete opposite of his sister. He was kind, and a hard worker. He was fairly quiet as well, but had a ready, dry humor that she enjoyed.

When their father had passed, Evan had come to pay his respects to the family and help with whatever needed to be attended to. Marcy in particular had taken a particular shine to Evan, especially when he gamely suited up and played roller hockey with her as the goally. He wasn't the best at the game, but with Marcy's coaching he'd gotten to the point where he made Marcy work to score a goal on him. Mara liked him well enough but lamented how reserved he was. Her mother had liked him almost as well as Marcy and there was a time that Elizabeth had been sure that Evan liked her.

But that was all before she knew about Lacy Steward. Lacy was a likeable enough girl, though Elizabeth privately found her to be a bit of a fluff head. Lacy had stayed with them for a bit while waiting to move into the dorms at Western and Elizabeth was informed that she was Evan's secret fiance. Utterly crushed, Elizabeth had kept her thoughts to herself but now, here was a letter from Evan.

Swallowing, she put the letter aside. She had enough things to think about tonight without dredging all of that up again.

She heaved a heavy sigh as she turned out the lights and prepared for bed. Just when it had seemed like things were going well, they'd been turned upside down. Why could nothing just go well for her family? Fluffing her pillow up, Elizabeth closed her eyes and fell into a restless and uneasy slumber.

Morning dawned cold and frosty and Marcy was in a better mood than yesterday. Mara was checking her cell phone every 5 minutes, no doubt hoping that Josh would call or text. She still refused to tell them exactly what had happened, which made Elizabeth wonder what on earth had happened. Usually Mara was quite forthcoming and keeping secrets was unlike her.

"Marcy, want to ride to the dealership with me?" she asked. It would surely be better than staying here with Mara and their mother.

From the speed with which Marcy agreed, Elizabeth concluded that her sister'd had the same thought. They trooped outside bundled in their winter coats and piled into their serviceable Subaru Forrester. "Do we have to sell the car?" Marcy asked curiously. Their mother had insisted that the youngest girl not be troubled with any of the "difficulties" but Marcy wasn't stupid and Elizabeth decided to be honest.

"Yeah, we do. We just can't afford insurance on three cars." she said as they headed down Iowa Street toward the Dewey Griffin Subaru dealership. Marcy nodded thoughtfully as they drove and Elizabeth reflected that it was nice to ride with someone who didn't chatter all the time.

The consultation at the dealership left them 4 thousand dollars richer, due mostly to the fact that Elizabeth was fastidious about taking the cars in for their oil changes when scheduled and making sure they were taken care of properly. They hailed a cab and returned home to find Mara rushing around the house.

Their mother informed them that Josh was coming to see her and they helped get the house ready for his arrival. The doorbell rang and the last items were shoved into the hall closet as Elizabeth went and opened the door.

Josh Wilson was a typically tall, dark and handsome young man. He had hazel eyes and a ready smile that wasn't so apparant at the present moment. He looked almost...nervous. "Hello Josh." Elizabeth said kindly as she stepped aside for him to come in.

"Hi Elizabeth." he replied as he came in and took off his shoes. "Crappy weather, huh?"

"Yep." she agreed as she followed him into the living room. If he was reduced to making conversation about the weather, something was seriously wrong.


End file.
